Government bailouts of private corporations )TARP and its continuation)
Government takeover of 1/7th of the economy (HCR)
Direct government ownership of corporations and banks through the bailouts
Government controls (not regulations, but control) of free market systems (Banks, stock market)

The one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind wasn't king, he was stoned for seeing light.

My point was that is historically correct to compare Obama to Stalin, and Hitler, but that is considered HATE. While comparing Bush to Hitler is acceptable but historically inaccurate. There is a double standard when it comes to the loony lef... sorry, the Progressives.

Like the ACLU, they bring out the big guns when a minority is discriminated against but do nothing when the New Black Panthers intimidate voters. The ACLU goes all guns blazing for the Fist Amendment but sits quietly when the Second Amendment is trampled on. Or the NAACP, a group based on race, accusing the Tea Party Movement of "racist element and activities".

ABOARD USS GEORGE WASHINGTON — A massive nuclear-powered U.S. supercarrier began maneuvers Sunday with ally South Korea in a potent show of force that North Korea has threatened could lead to "sacred war."

The military drills, code-named "Invincible Spirit," are to run through Wednesday with about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft. The Nimitz-class USS George Washington, with several thousand sailors and dozens of fighters aboard, was deployed from Japan.

The North routinely threatens attacks whenever South Korea and the U.S. hold joint military drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for an invasion. The U.S. keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea and another 50,000 in Japan, but says it has no intention of invading the North.

Still, the North's latest rhetoric threatening "nuclear deterrence" and "sacred war" carries extra weight following the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. Seoul and Washington say a North Korean torpedo was responsible for the March sinking of the Cheonan, considered the worst military attack on the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The American and South Korean defense chiefs announced earlier in the week they would stage the military drills to send a clear message to North Korea to stop its "aggressive" behavior.

The exercises will be the first in a series of U.S.-South Korean maneuvers to be conducted in the Sea of Japan off Korea's east coast and in the Yellow Sea closer to China's shores in international waters. The exercises also are the first to employ the F-22 stealth fighter _ which can evade North Korean air defenses _ in South Korea.

South Korea was closely monitoring North Korea's military, but no unusual activity had been observed Saturday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korea, which denies any involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan warship, has warned the United States against attempting to punish it.

"The army and people of the DPRK will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces," North Korea's official news agency in Pyongyang quoted an unnamed government spokesman as saying. North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Though the impoverished North has a large conventional military and the capability to build nuclear weapons, it is not believed to have the technology needed to use nuclear devices as warheads.

Its rhetoric regarding using nuclear deterrence was seen by most as bluster, but its angry response to the maneuvers underscores the rising tensions in the region.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Wednesday, after visiting the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, that the U.S. would slap new sanctions on the North to stifle its nuclear ambitions and punish it for the Cheonan sinking.

On Friday, the European Union said it, too, would consider new sanctions on North Korea.

The North's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Pyongyang will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent and again mentioned "powerful physical measures" in response to the U.S. military provocations and sanctions.

In an apparent bow to China, the George Washington will participate in the exercise in the Sea of Japan, but there are no plans for it to enter the Yellow Sea for the subsequent exercises.

China, a traditional North Korean ally, has voiced concerns that military drills in the Yellow Sea could inflame tensions on the Korean Peninsula and also fears exercises too close to its own shores could breach Chinese security.

The George Washington had been expected to join in exercises off Korea sooner, but the Navy delayed those plans as the United Nations Security Council met to deliberate what action it should take over the Cheonan sinking.

The council eventually condemned the incident, but stopped short of naming North Korea as the perpetrator.

A conventional war with the DPRK would not last very long. At best, they operate equipment whose hayday was in the 1960's. There is, however, a LOT of it. If they could achieve strategic surprise and successfully deploy their large 'special forces' units, they could make a mess of things for a day or two.

But they have nothing that could even come close to matching what happens to them when SK, Japanese and US airpower gets involved.

The 'war' part of a conflict with the DPRK is the 'easy' part to deal with. How Russia and China react is a complicating factor... Add to that the massive humanitarian crisis that happens after the DPRK's government is gone. THAT would be the expensive and complicated part.

With thousands of artillery pieces in the mountains north of Seoul, it would be a bloodbath. Our best tools for dealing with them are all in mothballs (I remember well Dad telling me about the New Jersey turning hill 368 into hill 320), and there are some things which require large amount of explosive delivered in a penetrating package at a high arc. Precision is alot, but it ain't everything.

Conventional war on the Korean Peninsula would be damned ugly. There would be two humanitarian crises, the first being the massive amount of civilian casualties in Seoul and the surrounding areas, the second being integration with the North and South after the war was over.

China holds Kim's leash, so it's not going to happen. We get into a war with Korea, China backs the North, and the US simply voids all China's bond holdings as a result of their support of the north.

Russia, at that point, would be sitting on the sidelines laughing, as China is their enemy in more ways than one.

The one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind wasn't king, he was stoned for seeing light.

With thousands of artillery pieces in the mountains north of Seoul, it would be a bloodbath. Our best tools for dealing with them are all in mothballs (I remember well Dad telling me about the New Jersey turning hill 368 into hill 320), and there are some things which require large amount of explosive delivered in a penetrating package at a high arc. Precision is alot, but it ain't everything.

A 2000lb JDAM makes a rather large mess. Or, a MLRS firing platoon, talking to a FIREFINDER MI unit, with a FBCB2.... A conventional artillery battery might get 6 rounds down range before the rain comes. You know, all those 'video game' gadgets we have. The reason why western militaries outclass potential opponents in every way... Even though 'we' are almost always heavily outnumbered.

Of course, that is all book work and peace time training stuff. The North DOES have a really, really, really large amount of artillery. It would certainly take a lot of time to get it all.

Conventional war on the Korean Peninsula would be damned ugly. There would be two humanitarian crises, the first being the massive amount of civilian casualties in Seoul and the surrounding areas, the second being integration with the North and South after the war was over.

China holds Kim's leash, so it's not going to happen. We get into a war with Korea, China backs the North, and the US simply voids all China's bond holdings as a result of their support of the north.

Russia, at that point, would be sitting on the sidelines laughing, as China is their enemy in more ways than one.

The 'war' part of a conflict with the DPRK is the 'easy' part to deal with. How Russia and China react is a complicating factor... Add to that the massive humanitarian crisis that happens after the DPRK's government is gone. THAT would be the expensive and complicated part.